Keep Groceries Affordable. Grow All Recycling. Support Michigan Jobs.

NO NEW GROCERY FEE
Stop HB 4904 & SB 453

Lawmakers are being asked to consider expensive new legislation that would slap families with costly new grocery fees. House Bill 4904 and Senate Bill 453 would expand the state’s bottle deposit law, raising prices for water, juice, and many other groceries.

The bills would create terrible unintended consequences.

  • Higher costs for Michiganders.

  • More fraud.

  • Lost jobs.

  • Hurts local recycling programs.

Michigan families can’t afford HB 4904 and SB 453.

The Keep Groceries Affordable Coalition is:

  • International Brotherhood of Teamsters
  • Detroit Regional Chamber
  • Michigan Spirits Assoc.
  • Hydrate Detroit
  • Grand Rapids Chamber
  • Michigan Distributors and Vendors Assoc.
  • Michigan Petroleum Assoc.
  • Michigan Retailers Assoc.
  • Michigan Soft Drink Assoc.
  • Midwest Independent Retailers Assoc.
  • MLBA
  • NFIB
  • Small Business Association of Michigan
  • Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Assoc.
  • Republic National Distributing Company
  • Lansing Regional Chamber

KEEP GROCERIES AFFORDABLE

Deposit law expansion will dramatically increase Michigan families’ grocery bills.

New fees on bottled water, juices, cooking ingredients and more couldn’t come at a worse time for Michiganders – forcing parents to make impossible choices and stretching limited dollars need to feed a family.

  • According to Moody's Analytics, families are paying $709 more per month than just 2 years ago for the same goods and services.

  • Consumers remain concerned about the cost of groceries and want ways to stretch their dollars –not ways that make them spend more upfront.

  • Residents across the state, including those in Flint, Detroit, Mount Clemens, Essexville, Benton Harbor, and Ludington, who rely on bottled water because of bad pipes or high costs, would be hardest hit.

MICHIGAN FAMILIES JUST CAN’T AFFORD HUGE GROCERY FEES FROM LANSING

GROW RECYCLING

According to the National Waste and Recycling Association, deposit laws remove the most valuable and commonly recycled containers from curbside recycling. That means traditional recycling is more costly and less effective.

The Michigan legislature passed landmark recycling legislation in 2022 to increase curbside recycling availability, improve the frequency of pickups, and boost local recycling efforts. We celebrate these efforts to increase convenience for recycling.

House Bill 4904 and Senate Bill 453 won’t help improve Michigan’s overall Recycling.

Michigan’s overall recycling rate is a dismal 21%, lagging far below other Great Lakes States (which don’t have a deposit law), and just a fraction of the national average. Recycling bottles and cans and using them to make new containers is important but it shouldn’t be at the expense of the 95% of waste not covered by a deposit law.

LET’S SUPPORT THESE EFFORTS, NOT UNDERMINE THEM!

SUPPORT MICHIGAN JOBS - STOP FRAUD

Michigan’s beverage and grocery industry create and support great union jobs.

In fact, 60% of the jobs in Michigan’s beverage industry alone are high-paying union jobs, but fraud in the deposit law system costs the state jobs.

Soft drink producers in Michigan lose $10 - $13 million annually from illegally transshipped soft drinks from non-deposit states. New water and grocery fees will drive that fraud through the roof – and high-paying jobs to our neighboring non-deposit states.

Michigan families can’t afford
House Bill 4904 and Senate Bill 453.